[simplicitymarine]

A couple of end results




If you are interested, I will start to take some 'before and after' photos of my jobs from now on.

For now, here are 'after' photos of some of my jobs this month, all of them have been still afloat in the local marinas; apologies for the poor camera phone photo quality. It has been tough going this month with temperatures down to zero overnight leaving frost and ice on the boats and pontoons until mid morning. This also means that it is not unusual for the water taps on the pontoon to be frozen, I sometimes need to take my own water supplies and try my hardest to avoid getting it on the pontoon so it doesn't freeze and cause more problems!

Because of waiting during the morning for the sun to melt the frost on the boats, I needed to work through until the last of the daylight each day.



You can just make out I have sunglasses on my head n the photo below, I wear the sunglasses for two reasons; firstly the sun is very low at this time of year and can be blinding in the early to late afternoon. Secondly, to me the finish always looks worse when viewed through tinted lenses and as my customers will mainly see their boat when wearing sunglasses, I want to make sure that I am seeing what they will see.

I did remove the algae that you can see in the rubbing strip after the photo was taken!

[Mike Phillips]

Looks phenomenal to me!

Nice work and thank you for sharing!

[JordanBotes]

Wow looking good! Will you be posting more photos with additional work you do?

Keep it up! Cheers

[simplicitymarine]

We have a couple of long weekends coming up in the UK so currently working every hour there is.

Just worked on a dry stacked boat, looked pretty good when we finished and has generated a bit of interest in our work.

[simplicitymarine]

Currently working on a 43 foot Flybridge.

The before:






And after a hit with a Flex 3401 with a Lake County White CSS pad and Farecla G10:





Managed to get around 3/4 of the hull done today, tomorrow I will finish the hull and hopefully get through most of the superstructure followed by a day of waxing!

If I remember I will take some photos after she is waxed as I am hoping she will come up just a bit more with a good wax and buff.

[Mike Phillips]

Wow!

Awesome results and great photography work. White is a difficult color to capture reflections in!

[CORIAN35]

Can you tell us what products you are using?

Joe

[simplicitymarine]

Originally Posted by CORIAN35

Can you tell us what products you are using?

Joe

Hi Joe,

My current 'go to' products are Flex 3401, white or orange Lake County CSS pads and Farecla G10. If the surface is really bad then I would initially hit it with G3 on a rotary with a farecla wool pad followed by the Flex and G10

I have a trade deal with 3M and will be moving to Finesse II when my stock of G10 has gone and High Gloss when my G3 stock has gone.

Without wanting to be smart, any good quality product will work, I find it is more about having patience when doing the polishing. It is all about moving the pad at a slow speed, crossing from up/down to left/right and passing over each patch at least six times. The take a good look and if not happy, hit it again.

I always try to work wearing polaroid sunglasses, the polaroid lenses makes the job look worse so it forces me to be really critical of my own work and push for the best finish I can deliver. Just as important, I see through my sunglasses exactly what my customers will see when they arrive on a sunny day to use their pride and joy - its one of my ways of managing customer expectation!

I could earn more money by just taking a wool pad, a rotary and a one pass product to the gelcoat and giving it a quick blast over but I couldn't look the customer in the eye after and I wouldn't get any enjoyment out of doing a second rate job all day every day. I stand back and take a huge amount of pride when watching my customers reaction when they first see their finished boat.

As an example,

I was asked to price up polishing the blue hull of a 47 foot sailboat, I gave my price and explained that it would take at least two days to do a good job without leaving it covered in swirls/holograms. He had cheaper price from a guy who said he could do it in less than a day.

I tried to talk sense but the customer wanted a cheap price!

this is the end result: (NOT MY WORK!)

(NOT MY WORK!)

The customer rang me nearly in tears asking if I can help put it right; I will help but can't get there for nearly a month.

It does go to prove that the only way to do cheap or quick is to cut corners and hope your customer doesn't notice!

Sorry if this sounded like a lecture, I am passionate about doing the best job possible and not accepting second best!

Take care,

Cheers
Paul.

[CORIAN35]

Thanks for letting us know what you use. Like the old saying " You get what you payfor".

[Mike Phillips]

Originally Posted by simplicitymarine

Hi Joe,

My current 'go to' products are Flex 3401, white or orange Lake County CSS pads and Farecla G10. If the surface is really bad then I would initially hit it with G3 on a rotary with a Farecla wool pad followed by the Flex and G10

I have a trade deal with 3M and will be moving to Finesse II when my stock of G10 has gone and High Gloss when my G3 stock has gone.

Both 3M and Farecla make very good products and that's because they use great abrasive technology. I try to teach the guys in the car detailing world that when it comes to polishing scratch-sensitive clearcoat paints that the most important factor is the abrasive technology and everything else is after this important factor. Some agree and according to the poll I posted most think technique is the important factor.


For others that may read this into the future our sister site does carry 3M as well as all the other popular brands but not Farecla.

3M Marine Products on Autogeek.com

Originally Posted by simplicitymarine

Without wanting to be smart, any good quality product will work, I find it is more about having patience when doing the polishing. It is all about moving the pad at a slow speed, crossing from up/down to left/right and passing over each patch at least six times. The take a good look and if not happy, hit it again.

I'd agree with good quality products

I know there are some compounds still on the market that simply don't use the best in abrasive technology. The results are they cut fast and I know guys like that when it comes to cutting out years of severely neglected, oxidized gel-coat but as your pictures show... poor abrasive technology simply leaves swirls and scratches in the hull as does finishing out with a rotary buffer.

Originally Posted by simplicitymarine

I always try to work wearing Polaroid sunglasses, the Polaroid lenses makes the job look worse so it forces me to be really critical of my own work and push for the best finish I can deliver. Just as important, I see through my sunglasses exactly what my customers will see when they arrive on a sunny day to use their pride and joy - its one of my ways of managing customer expectation!

That's a great tip to share with other boat detailers plus you want to protect your eyes when you're working outdoors for hours and days.

Originally Posted by simplicitymarine

I could earn more money by just taking a wool pad, a rotary and a one pass product to the gel coat and giving it a quick blast over but I couldn't look the customer in the eye after and I wouldn't get any enjoyment out of doing a second rate job all day every day.

And while you're are one of the exceptions to the rule, sad to say most boat detailers work like you just described.

What they should do is educate themselves first so they can then educate their customers and then raise their prices to be fairly paid for doing better work that takes more time. If all boat detailers did this then the market would adjust.

Originally Posted by simplicitymarine

I stand back and take a huge amount of pride when watching my customers reaction when they first see their finished boat.

I wrote an article about this sense of pride in your work for the car detailing world but the same sentiment applies to the boat detailing world.


The Mindset of a Professional Detailer

Originally Posted by simplicitymarine

As an example,

I was asked to price up polishing the blue hull of a 47 foot sailboat, I gave my price and explained that it would take at least two days to do a good job without leaving it covered in swirls/holograms.

He had cheaper price from a guy who said he could do it in less than a day.

I tried to talk sense but the customer wanted a cheap price!


this is the end result: (NOT MY WORK!)

(NOT MY WORK!)



The customer rang me nearly in tears asking if I can help put it right; I will help but can't get there for nearly a month.

Yep.... that's sad and that's the industry.

I wrote an article on this topic...

Holograms in gel-coat boats by Mike Phillips

Originally Posted by simplicitymarine

It does go to prove that the only way to do cheap or quick is to cut corners and hope your customer doesn't notice!

Sorry if this sounded like a lecture, I am passionate about doing the best job possible and not accepting second best!

Take care,

Cheers
Paul.

Thanks for sharing Paul - I think this post with the story and the pictures will enlighten all who read it into the future.